Astar, an 18-year-old boy, has been at the receiving end of strange powers and dreams for quite some time. He vividly remembers every time both manifests but cannot understand what all of these mean in his life. One day, his best friend, Micah, shows him a startling discovery —a huge gaping hole on the ground, which looked eerily familiar to Astar. The events that transpired after this finally give him answers to all the confusion, and he slowly realizes that he is part of a larger world he was only imagining before. As it calls him to use his abilities, Astar must understand what his choices mean and where they could lead not just himself but the entire world as he knows it.

Temple of Valor: Astar’s Blade, by Joe Lyon, is a well-executed book that perfectly closes a trilogy that fans have anticipated for so long. It packs enough references from the past, all while emphasizing the new characters’ roles in the story. The novel, with its two predecessors, guarantees a whole new world that readers can get to explore, all while enjoying common tropes in the genre to help them connect the dots and accommodate their initial idea of fantasy.

If you did not read the previous books, it is still easy to understand the events due to the author’s careful world-building, which is something integral in a fantasy novel. This was noticeable at the beginning, where every detail of the three Devourers was explained, from the first body part that each pulled out from the hole up until they were flying up. With so many unusual elements throughout the novel, the attention to detail was a generous help in trying to grasp how the characters and the setting look like and what they are doing on that exact page. Furthermore, the sequence of the story was well-written, particularly in the action scenes where not many lines were needed. It leaves you hooked and asking for more, making the five hundred pages seem short.

Temple of Valor: Astar’s Blade is the riveting conclusion to the epic fantasy series Astar’s Blade. With so much that this book has to offer, readers will surely be left satisfied as they close the book in finality, all while imagining what the next possible approaches, another book or trilogy or adaptation, can offer.

Pages: 526 | ASIN : B0B8TQ7XZ4

Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2022/10/24/temple-of-valor/